Netbackup 7.0 full restore - IP address disappears

[Matt_B1]

With BLIB (block level incremental backups) enabled in Netbackup 7, CBT enabled (done through Netbackup and verified through script), Win 2k8 R2 x64 VM, we successfully did a full backup from the Netbackup master server and then an incremental. We manually deleted the original VM from disk and then successfully used the Netbackup master server to do a full restore to the same datastore on the same ESX host. However, the MAC address changes somewhere in the process so Windows thinks it has a new physical NIC and the original NIC is missing. Due to this, we have to manually configure the IP info that Windows already thinks it has. Is there anyway we can have the Netbackup restore job restore a VM that is identical right away without extra configuration from us? We do not have a client installed in the VM so we are taking advantage of VADP (vStorage API for data protection) from the Netbackup master server.

Edit: We did this same process for a Win 2k3 SE 32-bit VM and the restored VM came up fine with the original IP info. The MAC address (auto-generated) by VMware is different than the original but Win 2k3 doesnt' seem to have an issue with that.

[Matt_B1]

In the end, Win 2k8 needed the original MAC address in order to work. To make this work, I needed to do the following steps.

1. Document the "ethernet0.generatedAddress" line in the .vmx from the original VM that was backed up.

2. Delete the original VM from disk

3. Edit the .vmx from the restored VM to match the line of the original.

4. Power it up and the IP information will be set.

Important notes: I found out that the range for Automatic MACs is different than the range for Static MACs when using vCenter. Therefore, you can’t change the MAC to Static and set it to match the Automatic address of the original since it will be out of range. Also, if you change the "ethernet0.generatedAddress" line in the restored VM .vmx while the original still exists, vCenter will revert your changes during the next refresh of data.

In order for Netbackup to do this, they would need to read the original .vmx file during the backup process and update the new .vmx after the VM creation for the restore.

[Matt_B1]

Closed